Behind the Red Mist gives us a wide range of stories from the most important writer of the post-war generation in Viet Nam. The characters range from a teenager transported back in time to discover some truths about the generation held up to him as a role model, to a party official who turns into a goat while watching porno movies, to an Indian who carries his mother's bones in his knapsack, to a war widow trying desperately to piece together her life through the fragments of debris she collects from her backyard.